Final Regular-Season Top 25 Poll

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan has finished the regular season at No. 1 after splitting first-place votes with Concordia (Neb.) for the fourth-straight week, the national office announced Wednesday. The Wildcats have earned at least a share of the top spot in 11-consecutive NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Polls. Indiana Wesleyan won the both the Mid-Central College Conference regular-season championship and the league tournament title and collected eight first-place votes and 339 points.

Qualifiers for the 21st annual State Farm-NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship will be announced today at 3 p.m. CST on NAIA.org. Eleven at-large selections will be added to the 21 teams that have been awarded automatic bids. The official 32-team bracket will then be unveiled by 6 p.m. CST on NAIA.org.

Concordia (Neb.) comes in at No. 2 with 336 points and five first-place nods for the fourth week in a row. Concordia breezed to the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) championship game where it triumphed, 73-66, over second-seeded Morningside (Iowa). College of the Ozarks (Mo.), which boasts the nation’s longest winning streak at 20, remained at No. 3 with 320 points. No. 4 Davenport (Mich.) moved up two spots with 310 points after knocking off then-No. 4 Concordia (Mich.) in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Tournament championship. Morningside again rounds out the top five with 296 points.

No. 16 College of Idaho, fresh off its Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament title, made the biggest move up in the poll by advancing four positions. Meanwhile, no Top 25 squad fell more than two spots. No. 25 Indiana Southeast, the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament champ, is making its first poll appearance since the Jan. 9 release. Indiana Southeast replaced Saint Mary (Neb.) (No. 23) in the rankings.

Thirteen of the 14 Division II women's basketball conferences and independents are represented throughout the Top 25. The GPAC, which has led all leagues in Top 25 representation in each poll this season, again placed the most teams of any conference in the rankings with five: Concordia, Morningside, No. 8 Northwestern (Iowa), No. 12 Briar Cliff (Iowa) and No. 19 Hastings (Neb.).

The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and independents. The postseason poll will be released on March 19.

Notes:(All information as of the 1999 – 2000 season) Indiana Wesleyan has now appeared at the top of the poll on 25 occasions, six more than Morningside (Iowa) for the most No. 1 rankings all-time … Davenport (Mich.) and Hastings (Neb.) are tied for the next most with 13 No. 1 rankings apiece, followed by Saint Francis (Ind.) which has made a dozen No. 1 appearances … There have been 14 different teams to garner the No. 1 ranking all-time … Indiana Wesleyan, Davenport and Northwestern (Iowa) are the only three squads to top at least one poll this season … Three schools have spent an entire season at No. 1: Morningside in 2008-09, College of the Ozarks (Mo.) in 2007-08 and Saint Francis in 1999-2000 … In the last 12 years, five teams that have been rated No. 1 in the preseason have gone on to win the national championship with the last being Northwestern in 2011 … A total of 41 schools have appeared in the Top 25 at least once this season … Eight teams have been ranked in all 11 polls so far this season … Indiana Wesleyan has been a unanimous No. 1 in six of its 11 top rankings this season … Concordia (Neb.), which has received five first-place votes in each of the last four polls, is trying to get back to the top spot for the first time since March 4, 2003 … Indiana Wesleyan, Concordia (Neb.) and No. 6 Davenport are tied for the fewest losses in the nation with two each.